We landed in Oahu and grabbed a rental car from Thrifty to explore the final island on our Hawaiian adventure. This was big on my list because at the time my brother, Jay, was stationed out of Hawai’i in the Navy, and he and his family lived on Oahu. We drove to Waikiki to check into Maile Sky Court (now Holiday Inn Express Waikiki), only to realize that the family lived right around the corner from Thrifty. Oh well, we got to unload.

We went to meet up with the fam, and to my surprise, my brother Jay was there! He was supposed to be deployed with the Navy, but was back in port. We had a great family reunion, and I was able to give my niece and nephew some books and other goodies. We grabbed dinner at Ramen-ya, had some tasty quick service ramen and caught up.

The next morning we met back up with them and headed to Boots & Kimo’s for some amazing breakfast. I had pancakes with a delicious macadamia nut sauce and a ham and cheese omelet.

Shout out to Kanani for being an amazing guide around her home island! She kept hitting us with new food and new experiences. After breakfast she dragged us to Waimea Valley, where we hiked to the natural, rain-fed, 40 foot tall waterfall and played in the pool. I learned my niece and nephew were brave and crazy, because they were swimming all over the place and jumping off of things. It was hilarious.

The valley was great, there were some older buildings, great flower hunting to be had, just an overall amazing landscape. We even spotted some peacocks. Kanani took control of the camera and got some great shots of local plants.

Then she took us to Giovanni’s Original Shrimp Truck, where we had some simple but tasty shrimp bowls. We drove around and she showed us some abandoned spots with some great graffiti, and then we found some shave ice.

The next day we met up with Jay and the kids, and he gave us a tour of Pearl Harbor Naval Base. We checked out the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fountain near Bravo Pier before heading there. A lot of people don’t realize that there’s still an active Naval base there, we sure didn’t. It was great to see where little bro worked, and he even gave us a tour of his sub, the now decommissioned USS Buffalo (Sorry gang, no pics allowed). I gotta say, I don’t know how people do it, that was such a tight space, but cool to experience.

We left them and went to experience the WW2 Valor in the Pacific National Monument which commemorates the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, and WW2 in the Pacific. We hear so much about D-Day and the war in Europe, so it was very cool to get a whole new perspective on the Allies war against the Axis powers. It sent me down a rabbit hole to learn more about the Pacific campaign.

The entry signage for the "World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument"

A draft of FDR's "Infamy" speech with markup

We were able to get on the ship and tour the harbor. We saw some of the submerged USS Arizona.

We then toured the USS Bowfin and Submarine Museum. Which, again, I didn’t know subs were so much a part of the naval campaign way back then, but was a completely new side of the war I hadn’t considered.

Anne pretends to target a gun on the USS Bowfin

We went and found my brother and the kids and did a tour of Hickam Airbase where they had some really cool models of older planes on display. The kids enjoyed the playground that had a bunch of ship based equipment for kids to play on. I’ve been to other bases around the US for various reasons, and it’s always amazing how much love and care goes into memorializing the sacrifice of our service members in sometimes small, and sometimes epic ways across the location. The memorial to the ships that explained their fates, the giant bronze tablet with the names of those lost engraved, and other nice touches were all very moving.

Hawaii Air National Guard entrance signage

Tim and Anne check out the 11th Bombardment Group memorial

That night, Kanani had us check out Doraku Sushi Kaka’ako in Honolulu. We had great time, and the food was tasty.

On our final day, we had breakfast at our hotel, and explored Downtown Waikiki a little. It’s always interesting to compare different cities in the US, so I’d say Waikiki had a San Diego vibe for me.

We went and visited Kanani and the kids one last time. Hanging out with her and Jay, and the kids was really my favorite part of Hawai’i. All the monuments and nature, and gorgeous landscapes and tasty food is good, but nothing can’t be made better by having some kids running around laughing and enjoying life, and sharing great times with loved ones.

Tim and Jay walk through Waimea Valley with the kids on their shoulders

That evening we enjoyed a meal at Waikiki Burger, and headed back to the hotel to be productive, because it was time to really go international again. And we ask the most important question of all… if you don’t do anything in a country, did you really visit it?